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New Orleans Evacuees and Activists Testify at Explosive House
Hearing on the Role of Race and Class in Government's Response
to Hurricane Katrina
How Many Are Missing and Dead After Katrina? Three Months
After the Hurricane, the Numbers are Still Unknown
New Orleans Evacuees and Activists Testify at Explosive
House Hearing on the Role of Race and Class in Government's
Response to Hurricane Katrina
Three months after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the
southern coast of the United States, decimating communities
in Mississippi and Louisiana, we play excerpts of an explosive
congressional hearing focusing on race and the government's
response to the disaster. [includes rush
transcript]
It has been three months since Hurricane Katrina ripped
through the southern coast of the United States, decimating
communities in Mississippi and Louisiana. After the initial
slow government response to the disaster, President Bush flew
to the region and promised the government will "do what
it takes, stay as long as it takes, to help our citizens rebuild
their communities and their lives." Well that promise
is feeling increasingly hollow to many people.
Today is the start of the Survivors General Assembly and
Strategy Conference in Jackson, Mississippi. Katrina survivors
are gathering at this conference and demanding the right to
return to their homes and to take part in the reconstruction
process. They are also calling for reparations for what they
say is the government's criminal indifference and malicious
actions towards the survivors before, during and after Katrina.
But survivors are not the only ones speaking out. Local reporters
and politicians from both sides of the aisle have criticized
the government's inaction.
On Wednesday, Mississippi Republican Governor Haley Barbour,
a staunch Bush supporter and former chair of the Republican
National Committee stated, "we are at a point where our
recovery and renewal efforts are stalled because of inaction
in Washington D.C." Barbour went on to say there was
no money to rebuild highways and bridges and school districts
were close to bankruptcy. And he was just referring to Mississippi.
The city of New Orleans remains in a state of emergency with
most residents unable to return. Many say they have been abandoned
by the federal government, the same way they were abandoned
during the first days of the storm. The Times-Picayune carried
an editorial on the front page recently pleading "Do
Not Let the City Die." Local advocates say the government
is not committed to rebuilding the city for all of its citizens.
They point to the fact that few public housing units have
been reopened and that landlords are being allowed to evict
people in mass numbers.
80% of New Orleans residents have not returned. And those
who have are mostly white and wealthy. African-Americans especially
feel the government is not making an effort to ensure that
they are able to return. A group of homeless evacuees are
filing a lawsuit in Federal Court today contending that FEMA
engaged in illegal practices by denying or delaying their
requests for temporary housing. They are also demanding that
the agency back off of its plan to kick people out of their
hotels in the coming days. The FEMA deadline for evacuees
to be out of their hotels is December 15th with evacuees in
some states granted until January 7th to find new housing.
A recent poll conducted by the Washington Post found 61%
of evacuees sampled in Houston said their experience since
Katrina has made them think that the government doesn't care
about them. 68% of those surveyed believed that the federal
government would have responded more quickly if people trapped
in the city were "wealthier and white rather than poorer
and black."
On Tuesday, a special House Select Committee held a hearing
focusing on the role of race and class in the government's
response to Katrina. The hearing was requested by Georgia
Representative Cynthia McKinney. She was one of the few Democrats
to participate. It was a most unusual hearing - one that we
rarely see on Capitol Hill. Survivors and activists testified
that racism was a big reason so many were abandoned and allowed
to die.
- Excerpts of House Select Committee hearing on the government's
response to Katrina. Among those who testified:
- Ishmael Muhammad, attorney for the Advancement
Project and part of the People's Hurricane Relief Fund.
- Leah Hodges, New Orleans evacuee.
- Dyan French, New Orleans community leader.
- Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National
Black Chamber of Commerce.
How Many Are Missing and Dead After Katrina? Three
Months After the Hurricane, the Numbers are Still Unknown
Questions still remain over how many people died after Hurricane
Katrina as well as the whereabouts of all of the evacuees.
The official death toll stands at about 1,300 but thousands
of people are still reported missing. One newspaper reported
the whereabouts of 6,600 people reported missing have not
been determined. We speak with New Orleans evacuee Leah Hodges,
who is still missing her brother, and Tina Susman, a Newsday
reports the number of missing include over 1,300 children.
[includes rush
transcript]
Questions still remain over how many people died after Hurricane
Katrina as well as the whereabouts of all of the evacuees.
The official death toll stands at about 1,300 but thousands
of people are still reported missing. Two weeks ago USA Today
reported the whereabouts of 6,600 people reported missing
have not been determined. And this past weekend Newsday reported
the missing includes 1,300 children.
The reports are based on figures provided by two groups:
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and
the National Center For Missing Adults.
Officials with both groups say the numbers are so high in
part because government record-keeping efforts haven't caught
up with Katrina survivors who were separated from their families
during the evacuations. Hurricane shelters had no coordinated
system for feeding evacuees" names, birth dates and other
information into a national database.
- Leah Hodges, she testified in Washington at Wednesday's
hearing on Katrina. She is a former resident of New Orleans
currently living in Atlanta. She is still missing her brother.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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